“Those who know many languages live as many lives as the languages they know.

”
‒Czech proverb
What does it mean to know a language?
“Knowing a language means being able to produce an infinite number of sentences
never spoken before and to understand sentences never heard before.” (Fromkin,
Rodman and Hyams, 2002, P.8-9) I believe that the pillar of this perspective is the
“creative aspect” of language.
“The knowledge you need can be summarized under these headings: Knowledge about
the form of the language, knowledge about how the language is used in different
situations and knowledge about putting the language together in speech and writing
Words to describe what you know” (Lewis, 1999 P.23)
Accordingly, knowing a language means knowing the sounds, the words, and the rules
to combine these words in order to be able to communicate. The levels of language
knowledge can be described as
1- The knowledge of sounds, which is known as the phonetic level. This is the
knowledge of the sound system of the language and discovering the combinations of
sounds that can/cannot occur.
2- The knowledge of meaning. Which contains Lexis, i.e., understanding the word
meaning and semantics, i.e., understanding the sentence meaning. Putting the sounds
from the phonetic level together will lead us to know words and what they represent.
Knowledge of the meaning of words occurs by linking the sounds of the words to what
they represent. It has nothing to do with the object’s shape or physical attributes as the
sounds of words are only given meanings by the language in which they occur.

3- The knowledge of Grammar; that is Syntax and Morphology.

Now that we know a finite set of words. We need to know the rules and structure upon
which we can determine that this is a sentence or not. These rules are finite as well. So,
in our minds, we have a finite set of words and a finite set of structures that allow us to
understand and create an infinite amount of sentences. Knowing which sentences are
appropriate in various situations is undoubtedly a part of knowing the language. (Robins
and Crystal, 2019)

“When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the
“human essence,” the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to
man.” (Noam Chomsky, Cited in Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams, 2002, P.3)
To conclude, using language is the most sophisticated way to interact as human beings.
Humans have the ability to develop a highly complex system of sounds and structures,
to be able to crack the code of language, which will allow humans in early age to
produce extended discourse containing a potentially infinite number of utterances. No
other creature can use the language in this sense; that’s why it is uniquely human.